Song of the Day: The Fucking Eagles – Gentlemen’s Blues

Every Monday through Friday, we deliver a different song as part our Song of the Day podcast subscription. This podcast features exclusive KEXP in-studio performances, unreleased songs, and recordings from independent artists that our DJs think you should hear. Each and every Friday we offer songs by local artists. Today’s featured selection, chosen by Afternoon Show host Kevin Cole, is “Gentlemen’s Blues” by The Fucking Eagles from the 2009 album Midnight Sour on Gaptooth Jukebox.

“I’ve had a rough night and I hate the fucking Eagles, man” If you’re anything like me you’ll find it difficult to not immediately admire a band that takes it’s name from a film scene (Joel and Ethan Coen’s The Big Lebowski) that unceremoniously denounces the legitimacy of the Eagles.

Tacoma’s own garage rock sensation The Fucking Eagles strike back with their latest release (and second LP on Gaptooth Records) Midnight Sour. The follow-up to their immensely popular first album, A Million Dollars Worth of Music (also on Gaptooth), Midnight Sour keeps to the previously laid formula of catchy pop anthems mixed with the sensibility of R&B and the grit of low-fi garage rock. The ‘effing E’s have received a good deal of praise for their no-nonsense approach to playing live — and indeed they remind me of a time when I actually moved around at shows (okay it still happens here and there). While I’ve not yet seen them play, I’d be willing to bet a week’s worth of street dogs that no one in the crowd ends up in the same place they started.

A quick listen to “Gentleman’s Blues” sends the mind packing for simpler sounding days where rock ‘n’ roll was made of steamy riffs, purified solos and boiling choruses. It’s not hard to hear band’s like The Sonics and Thee Headcoats floating their influence here – but the real gem to the band’s lineage is their clear admiration for, and possession of, soul. A highlight to the band’s latest effort comes midway through Midnight Sour with a cover of The Flirtations classic “Nothing But a Heartache,” onto which the band asserts its special blend of bravado and heart. Sort of like a three-way high-five between Chuck Berry, Etta James and Jerry Lee Lewis, The Fucking Eagles are the perfect soundtrack to an evening cab ride, even if you did just get nailed in the face with a coffee mug. Fucking fascists.

You can catch the band at the Funhouse in Seattle next Thursday, October 15, and at Top of Tacoma the following week. Check their MySpace page to see what you’re chances of spotting them in Seattle are after that. For now, here’s a decent sounding clip of The ‘effing Eagles performing “He Won’t Love You Like I’ll Leave You” at the Comet in June: